Indexing cards or the like

ABSTRACT

This invention relates to an indexing card comprising a planar sheet of plastic material of low frictional coefficient one or both surfaces of said sheet including a plurality of recording portions each being surrounded by a substantially continuous protecting portion into which the recording portions are recessed to a depth sufficient to avoid accidental erasion of markings made thereon.

United States Patent 1191 Kemp Apr. 9, 1974 INDEXING CARDS OR THE LIKE 1,324,513 9/1931 Tibbetts 35/62 I 2,652,833 9/1953 Mayers 40/360 [76] lnventor- Frederlck Kemp; 3,063,164 11/1962 Pellegrino et a1 40/360 532 x n fp Vwtona, 1,716,036 6/1929 Dunning, Jr.'. 35/37 ustra 1a [22] Filed: July 18, 1972 Primary Examiner Robert W. Michell Assistant Examiner-15. R. Oremland [2]] Appl 272315 Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Ladas, Parry, Von Gehr, Goldsmith & Deschamps [30] Foreign Application Priority Data Aug. 2, 1971 Australia 5752/71 57 ABSTRACT 52 US. (:1. 40/360 35/37 This invent relates w a indexing card i 51 Im. c1.; B42f 21/00, 865d 27/00 a Flamr Sheet 1Clastic material of fricmmal f Search n 2 efficient one 01' both surfaces Of said sheet including a 1 35/66 plurality of recording portions each being surrounded by a substantially continuous protecting portion into [56] References Cited which the recording portions are recessed to a depth 1 sufficient to avoid accidental erasion of markings UNITED STATES PATENTS made thereon 3,508,356 4/1970 Ross 35/66 X 3,651,591 3/1972 Woodyard 40/159 X 1 Claim, 3 Drawing Figures INDEXING CARDS OR THE LIKE This invention relates to indexing cards or the like on which information is to be printed by writing, typing or the like.

Traditionally indexing systems for information'employ a card of paper like construction, of the desired dimensions, upon which is typed or written by hand the matter to be stored. However when the information to be stored on a card is variable and alterations are to be made a new card must be prepared since it is difficult to remove the information already printed on the card. Clearly it wouldbe of advantage to be able to use the same card, particularly if some of the information recorded has not been altered. Previous attempts to remove this altered information using erasers damage the surface of the card and the indexing card quickly becomes very tatty and grubby. One such card system is employed to keep a record of telephone service faults card being kept for each telephone connectiomA new card must be retyped from time to time when the sub scriber changes (though the faults recorded remain the same) when the service is altered in some way, or when the list of faults exceeds the space available in which they may be recorded.

' Various attempts have been made in the past to prepare an indexing card of the above general type and on which alterations may be made without the necessity to retype the entire card. But these previous attempts have not proved successful.

Plastic material such as polyethylene and polypropylene for example can be written upon and the writing can bereadily erased when desired. But unfortunately the writing maybe so readily erased that if the cards are brushed against a surface or rubbed together'the writing is removed. Accordingly cards made of such material are clearly not acceptable and no serious at- FIG. 2 represents a reverse face view of the index card shown in FIG. 1; and' V 7 FIG. 3 is a cross sectional elevation 3 3 of the indexing card shown in FIGS. 1 and. 2.

The indexing card 6 includes a plurality of recording portions 7 in which information may be recorded on the indexing card. The indexingcard also includes pro tecting portion 8 preferably surrounding each of the recording portions 7 such that the'recording portions 7 appear recessed into the surface of the substantially continuous recording portion 8. The recording portions 7 are recessed into the protecting portions 8 to a depth sufficient to avoid accidental erasion of markings made on the recording portions 7 such as by rubbing of sev eral index cards together. However it is preferred that the recording portions are not recessed to such an extent as to prevent intentional erasion when it is desired to remove the information recorded thereon. Preferably the protecting portions 7 are recessed to a depth of from about 1 to 50 percent, preferably to about 25 percent, of the minimum dimension of the recording portion 8.

Preferably the recording portions7 are substantially elongated recording portions as shown and extend across the indexing card 6. The recording portions 7 are preferably set out in a manner depending upon the tempt has been made to employ such plastic materials i in the-manufacture of indexing cards.

An objectof the present invention is to provide an indexing card or the like that substantially avoids the disadvantages above outlined.

The present invention provides an indexing card or the like comprisinga substantially planar sheet of plastic material of relatively low frictional coefficient as hereinafter defined, one or both surfaces of the sheet including a plurality of recording portions-eachbeing surrounded by a substantially continuous protecting portion into which the recording portions are recessed to a depth sufficient to avoid accidental erasion of markings-made on the recording portions.

invention. To facilitate understanding of the invention,

reference is made to the accompanying drawings where these'features are illustrated in preferred form. It is to be understood however, that the essential and optional features of the invention are not limited to the specific forms of these features as shown in the drawings.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 represents a face view of an index card;

use to which the indexing card is to be put. Preferably the width of the recording portion is sufficient to take pica typing and may be of any suitable length. Preferably the length of the recording portion is kept to a minimum to assist in the avoidance of accidental erasion of the material recorded thereon but it may be of any length necessary to accommodate the information to be recorded in that particular portion. Recording portions may be provided on each side of the indexing card asshown.

In the preferred arrangement shown it will be noted that the minimum dimension of the recording portion isits width and itis preferred that'the depth of the recording portion is about 25 percent of the width as previously indicated.

The indexing card 6 may be made of any suitable plastic material. A particularly suitable material is polyvinylacetate. Preferably an. opaque white polyvinylacetate material is used in the construction of the cards. It is believed that the low frictional coefficient of the polyvinylacetate is sufficient to hold the ink or pencil but not if it is rubbed.

Code portions 9 may be included in the indexing card if desired. Preferably the code portions 9 are of similar nature to the recording portion 7 and also appear as recesses in the surface of the indexing card. The code portions 9 may be coloured or otherwise indexed as desired toindicate a particular feature or reference recorded on the indexing card.

Tab portions 11, 12 and 13 may also be included on the indexing card when desired. These may appear as projections on one or more edges of the indexing cards. One or more of the tab portions may be indented as in tab portion 11 and the indented portions may be similar in nature to therecording portions 7 of the indexing card. Other tab portions as at 12 and 13 may be simple extensions of the indexing card. The tab portions may be coloured or otherwise coded as desired.

The indexing cards may also have embossed thereon reference information such as headings for the material to be recorded. Preferably the reference information is information common to a number of indexing cards. The reference information shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 would be suitable for instance in an indexing card used for recording faults in a telephone system but it will be appreciated that any suitable reference information may be included and the various portions may be interchanged in position and may be of different shapes as desired depending upon the information to be recorded.

Thus it will be seen that the present invention provides an indexing card or the like upon which information may be recorded and preserved but which can be readily and permanently erased to leave undamaged and untarnished the recording portions upon which amended information may be recorded. Thus the indexing cards may be used over and over again without the need for replacement. This avoids the extensive amount of work that isinvolved with normal replacement operations when information on a card is changed.

As previously indicated the indexing cards illustrated are most satisfactory for use in connection with recording of details of telephone service faults. Details of the service subscriber may be recorded on one side of the indexing card as shown in FIG. I and a record of the faults may be recorded on the other side as shown in FIG. 2. When the details of the subscriber service are altered then changes can be made readily on the indexing card. When the list of service faults is full then the one at the top may be erased and the new service fault recorded thereon and so on.

Whilst the invention has been described with particular reference to indexing cards it will be appreciated that the present invention is applicable to any sheet of material on which it is desired to record information. For instance the principles of the present invention may be applied to a card used in the sensor type computer reader for example. In such a card information system material is extracted from the card by detection of portions which do not reflect light thenthe recording portions of the indexing card may be marked with a dense black carbon pencil or the like at appropriate positions in the normal computer card coded positions. In accordance with the present invention the computer card is reusable since the recording portions may be cleaned as previously indicated without adverse effect of the card itself and this means that the other information recorded on the card may be retained without the need to duplicate it each time an alteration is to be made-to the coded information.

In place of carbon pencil any other suitable opaque coating material such as ink may be used. Particularly suitable is an ink that may be printed or stamped into the recording portions that will be retained therein for a period sufficient to enable the card to pass through the computer reader but which will be readily removed therefrom by heating or aging so that no erasion is necessary to makethe card ready for reuse.

It will be appreciated that the indexing cards may be printed, embossed or otherwise treated in accordance with known procedures in the art.

It is to be appreciated also that various minor variations and modifications may be made to the above described arrangement without departing from the spirit and ambit of the present invention as defined in the claims annexed hereto.

Having now described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. An indexing card comprising a moulded planar sheet of opaque plastic material of low frictional coefficient to enable the surface to retain markings which can readily be erased therefrom when desired, at least one surface of said sheet including a plurality of elongated substantially rectangular recording portions recessed into the surface of said sheet to a depth of about 25 percent of the width of the respective recording portions thereby to avoid accidental erasion of markings made thereon, said recording portion extending laterally across said card and being of a width sufficient to accomodate one line of pica typeface. 

1. An indexing card comprising a moulded planar sheet of opaque plastic material of low frictional coefficient to enable the surface to retain markings which can readily be erased therefrom when desired, at least one surface of said sheet including a plurality of elongated substantially rectangular recording portions recessed into the surface of said sheet to a depth of about 25 percent of the width of the respective recording portions thereby to avoid accidental erasion of markings made therEon, said recording portion extending laterally across said card and being of a width sufficient to accomodate one line of pica typeface. 